A few weeks ago I started an experiment. Some of my Facebook friends saw it, and participated in it. Others didn't even realize it was happening, but participated in it anyway. My goal was to see how post frequency affected how my posts were displayed to friends. I then spent a week consciously increasing how often I posted to Facebook. I bracketed that week with a blog post on either end.
My findings aren't particularly scientific. My sample size is tiny, and my data collection range is too brief. I can't draw any larger conclusions. But the sliver of data I've got supports conclusions drawn by loads of more dedicated people than me; that the Facebook algorithm that determines whether your friends/followers see your posts is directly tied to how frequently you post, and if you want to be sure that people are seeing your updates, you've got to post a lot. Multiple times a day. At least once per hour, preferably.
Which is fine for a business or large company that can employ a social media manager to handle all that. It's significantly less fine for me, who is mainly just interested in keeping up with old friends and doesn't want to spend all day posting inane content just so people can actually see the one life update or blog post every week or so.
The issue runs both ways. I know exactly what I'll see on my timeline every time I open up Facebook these days; movie trailers, ads for bands or YouTube creators, and memes posted by a few of my friends who post a lot of memes.
That's... that's it. And it's not like your memes aren't on point, memers, but have you seen Imgur? I've got my meme needs well and truly covered.
So yeah, Facebook is no longer enabling me to do what it once did, and I've just got no more motivation for the thing. So I'm probably just gonna start ignoring it. I'm still interested in keeping up with friends, but I guess that's gonna come down to following y'all on Instagram. Posting on Instagram kinda isn't my thing, though, so if you wanted to keep up with what I'm doing... Not sure what to tell ya. Following blogs isn't really a thing people do anymore. You could follow me on Twitter (@calebspendlove) I guess? Or hey, let's set up a Discord or Slack channel and invite all our friends to it.
Or heck, just pick a messaging platform and let's chat. How are you? What are you up to these days?
In any case, Facebook sorta stopped working for "rarely-posts-ers" like me basically a year ago. My little experiment was just a personal confirmation of what everyone kinda already knew. Thanks for all those that participated!
My findings aren't particularly scientific. My sample size is tiny, and my data collection range is too brief. I can't draw any larger conclusions. But the sliver of data I've got supports conclusions drawn by loads of more dedicated people than me; that the Facebook algorithm that determines whether your friends/followers see your posts is directly tied to how frequently you post, and if you want to be sure that people are seeing your updates, you've got to post a lot. Multiple times a day. At least once per hour, preferably.
Which is fine for a business or large company that can employ a social media manager to handle all that. It's significantly less fine for me, who is mainly just interested in keeping up with old friends and doesn't want to spend all day posting inane content just so people can actually see the one life update or blog post every week or so.
The issue runs both ways. I know exactly what I'll see on my timeline every time I open up Facebook these days; movie trailers, ads for bands or YouTube creators, and memes posted by a few of my friends who post a lot of memes.
That's... that's it. And it's not like your memes aren't on point, memers, but have you seen Imgur? I've got my meme needs well and truly covered.
So yeah, Facebook is no longer enabling me to do what it once did, and I've just got no more motivation for the thing. So I'm probably just gonna start ignoring it. I'm still interested in keeping up with friends, but I guess that's gonna come down to following y'all on Instagram. Posting on Instagram kinda isn't my thing, though, so if you wanted to keep up with what I'm doing... Not sure what to tell ya. Following blogs isn't really a thing people do anymore. You could follow me on Twitter (@calebspendlove) I guess? Or hey, let's set up a Discord or Slack channel and invite all our friends to it.
Or heck, just pick a messaging platform and let's chat. How are you? What are you up to these days?
In any case, Facebook sorta stopped working for "rarely-posts-ers" like me basically a year ago. My little experiment was just a personal confirmation of what everyone kinda already knew. Thanks for all those that participated!
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